Choo Choo!

A couple of months ago I found a train enthusiast group that offers free rides to the public once a month.  The Houston Area Live Steamers is a "club devoted to live steam modeling with emphasis on model trains large enough to ride."  Jaden and I decided to go take a look.  He's really into trains right now since his Kindermusik class has been singing about the Allee Allee-O train that runs through the zoo.  He was so excited!  He kept pointing to the trains and saying Choo Choo!  I thought it was cute, seeing all these older men hanging out and playing with their trains.  =D  The club doesn't charge for the rides and you can ride as much as you want, so you wait in line, ride the train, then go back to the end of the line if you want to ride again.  The ride takes you down a track that has little train stations, water towers and train crossing signs, through some wooded areas and back to the station.  By the time we got back to the station after our ride, there was a 45 min wait.  It was already getting pretty hot so we grabbed a t-shirt and a hat for Jaden and headed home.  Fun outing!   

Waiting in line.

Hanging out.

The train before ours.

Old guy asking us not to stick our arms out to take

pictures because the trees will "eat our cameras".

Lovin' the pants!  =D

Getting ready to go.

Going through the camera eating trees.

Tried to take a picture around the guy in

front of us without getting busted.

Wearing my hat and having a snack!

Little Artist

Today Jaden and I were house-bound.  Crews finishing up the warranty work on the house.  Jaden was getting bored so I decided to cut him loose with the markers, glitter pens and watercolors on a plain t-shirt.  He's very serious about his art, but finally agreed to let me take a picture for the blog.  =D

Mixed Media - Abstract

Happy Father's Day! Hee Hee (video)

John actually laughed at this one!  Whew!  =D

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*** Heavy Sigh ***

You would think after almost getting run over yesterday that I would start Jaden out on the Jeep in the middle of the street.  But Nooooooooo.  I had to put him in the Jeep while it was still in the garage.   At least he didn't hit me.

I think I'm going save the next Jeep outing for Daddy.  =D

Watch Out! (video)

Let me set up the video for you.  ALL the kids in our cul-de-sac have powered ride on cars except for Jaden and they usually drive off with Jaden running after them, sometimes stopping to give him a ride.  Daddy decided that it was time for him to have a car of his own and learn how to "drive".  We went over to Toys-R-Us to kick some tires and finally settled on a green Jeep that could also drive over grass at 3.5 mph.  I think Jaden was partial to the Escalade but wasn't big enough to reach the pedal.  We paid for the Jeep, amazingly got it into the back of my car and took it home.  After charging up the battery overnight and Daddy getting the Jeep put together, Jaden is all ready to go.  It was so cute!  The boys from across the street came over to check out his new ride and asked Jaden if he wanted to race.  They ran back across the street to get their Jeep and this is where the video begins.  I really wish there was a Drivers Ed course for these things!  ** Turn off volume on the music player at the bottom of the blog.  **

In Memory of Katie

Katie

1992-2009

Yesterday we had to put my cat Katie to sleep.  I picked her up from the family that had adopted her from us after receiving a message that she wasn't doing well and the Vet confirmed that she was losing the use of her back legs due to complications with feline diabetes (diagnosed 5 years ago) and old age.  I asked if 17 years was old for a cat and she said yes, most cats with diabetes don't live past 13 years of age. I'm so glad that I was able to spend time alone with her, sitting in the sunny window at the Just Cats Vet Clinic,  petting her head, hearing her purr and telling her how much I loved her and that we would all miss her so much.  After she passed, I noticed a plaque on the wall that read, "Heaven is the place where all the cats that ever loved you, will be waiting at the gate."  I hope so.

Gotta have the sprinkles!

We took Jaden to Berryhill Baja Grill for lunch over the weekend.  It was like pulling teeth to get him to eat and then the family at the table next to us all got ice cream cones which didn't help AT ALL.  After begging him to please finish his lunch and then bribing him with an ice cream cone, he finished.  So Jaden and I went inside to get his cone.  He chose rainbow sprinkles over the chocolate ones (smart choice, variety is good!) and then went back outside to show it off to Daddy.  

First bite.

Cheese!

Mmmmm!  Mmmmm!

Lip smacking good!

Spray Fountains!

The pools here aren't open during the week (regular season) until this Friday so we thought we would go to the Market Street spray fountains.  Jaden's friends Ashlyn, Aubrey, Emma & Ethan joined him for some fun.  Here are just a few pics from our outing.

First shot to the face.

I am AquaMan!

Jaden & Aubrey

Jaden & Ashlyn (sporting the bright floral suit with sash).

Aubrey pouring water on Jaden's head.

Happy Birthday Jay!

Today (Tuesday, June 2nd) is John's brother Jay's 34th Birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAY!

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Happy Birthday Justin!

Friday was John's brother Justin's 35th Birthday!  We all went out to Crush (wine bar) on Saturday night to celebrate.  We were on the rooftop and had a great view of the waterway and the fountains.

Birthday Boy Justin!

Jen & Justin

Me & John

The Ladies

Tammy, Me, Jen, Kami & Cindy

Last Day of School Luau

Thursday was Jaden's last day school at his Mother's Day Out program.  The class had a Luau Party for the kids and parents and it was really cute!  They made grass skirts and painted them (brown grocery bags) but Jaden was too cool to wear his.  His teachers, Ms. Amy & Ms. Amanda, found some straws with hula girls on them and the kids loved them.  Here are some pics from the party.

Clockwise

Joel (1/2 of him), Ethan R., Jaden, Marissa, Landon, Kayla, Asher & Jessie

Jessie & Cole

Ethan W.

Jaden & Landon

Ms. Amy, Jaden & Ms Amanda

Jaden decided he didn't want to smile for the pic. =]

We hope all of Jaden's classmates/teachers have a great summer but we will get to see most of them in the summer session.